Scott Jensen

His father, Carl Jensen, was a member of the state legislature at various times between 1951 and 1980.

Scott M. Jensen (born November 19, 1954) is an American physician and politician.

Jensen was born on November 19, 1954.

Jensen graduated as the valedictorian from Sleepy Eye High School in Sleepy Eye, Minnesota, in 1973.

He attended Luther Northwestern Theological Seminary from 1977 to 1978 and the University of Minnesota, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in physiology in 1978 and a Doctor of Medicine in 1981.

Jensen became involved in politics as a supporter of John Anderson, and later Republican Ronald Reagan, in the 1980 presidential election.

Jensen was a professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School and has had a small family medical practice in Watertown, Minnesota, since 1986.

He was a member of the Citizens Alliance Bank board, serving as the audit committee chair.

During the 1990s and 2000s, he served on the Waconia school board.

In the 1990s and 2000s, he served on the school board in Waconia, Minnesota, and chaired the local Republican Party.

He was a Bush Fellow of leadership and policy studies at the University of Minnesota in 1999.

Jensen was elected to the state Senate in 2016 from a district covering part of Carver County, Minnesota, on the outskirts of the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area.

During his term in the legislature, he was regarded as moderate.

After leaving the legislature, his views shifted to the right.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Jensen was known for his criticisms of COVID-19 lockdowns and promotion of COVID-19 anti-vaccination falsehoods.

He was the 2016 Minnesota Family Physician of the Year.

Jensen was elected to the Minnesota Senate in 2016 representing part of Carver County.

He ran as a traditional conservative Republican, opposing abortion and favoring low taxes.

A member of the Republican Party, he was a member of the Minnesota Senate from 2017 to 2021.

He was the Republican nominee for governor of Minnesota in the 2022 election.

Jensen was born and raised in Sleepy Eye, Minnesota.

He earned his M.D. from the University of Minnesota.

Jensen practices family medicine at his clinic in Watertown, Minnesota.

During his single term in the legislature, he was regarded as moderate and pro-business, receiving a perfect score from the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce in 2017 and 2018.

He was seen as "an eccentric and unpredictable legislator"; and as among the more bipartisan members of the Minnesota Senate, with a reputation as a political maverick.

Jensen supported a bill to allow local governments to adopt ranked-choice voting, a system some Republicans had attempted to prohibit in the state.

He put forward a bill to regulate pharmacy benefit managers, and to create a new commission to probe drug price increases.

Voting against his party, he supported a ban on conversion therapy.

Jensen received media attention in 2017 after providing medical attention to Governor Mark Dayton after Dayton collapsed while giving his State of the State address on the floor of the state House at the Minnesota State Capitol.

In July 2019, Jensen announced that he would not seek reelection in 2020.

In January 2021, just after he retired from the State Senate, Jensen was viewed as a potential Republican candidate for governor in the 2022 election, challenging Democratic incumbent Tim Walz, and said he planned to decide whether to run in the coming months.

In March 2021, Jensen announced his candidacy.

He named former Minnesota Vikings player Matt Birk as his running mate.

He took an early polling and fundraising lead among Republican candidates in the primary, running against former Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, Lexington Mayor Mike Murphy, and others.

(State Senator Michelle Benson also sought the nomination, but dropped out of the race.) Jensen won a Carver County Republican Party straw poll by a wide margin during the 2022 Republican primary campaign for governor.

He chose not to seek reelection in 2020.

In 2021, Jensen announced his bid to challenge incumbent Democratic governor Tim Walz in the 2022 Minnesota gubernatorial election.

He later selected former professional football player Matt Birk as his running mate.

Jensen secured the Republican nomination in the August 2022 primary election.

He and Birk lost to Walz and Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan in the general election.